Chocolate Dessert Recipes

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and I've been brainstorming ideas of how to celebrate it. Little Aria is a chocolate lover and I've been showing her many ways of eating chocolate. I put up some recipe suggestions in case you're planning to cook and bake as well. Naturally you'll want to pick the dishes that your sweetie likes; Aria's favorite is a simple square of quality chocolate and chocolate mousse. Joyeuse Saint-Valentin!

These angel dessert cups are the result of our hard work baking for this holiday season. The sweets are made of milk chocolate with salted caramel bits turned into a delicious, egg-free mousse, topped with vanilla bean-flavored cream, salted caramel sauce and an angel-shaped, crisp sugar cookie.

The most amazing part was to see the look in Aria's eyes. She was mesmerized by the "snow" (powdered sugar) on the angel cookies; I could see a sparkle much like the stars at night, which was priceless. Hearing her laugh with delight brings so much joy to the house, you can almost hear the triumphant chorus of angels. Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

Today Aria's preschool teachers planned a small Diwali celebration in school. Diwali is a Hindu festival and it's India's biggest holiday of the year. It's also known as the "festival of lights." The day began with a non-religious story of Diwali, then there was a beautiful Rangoli demonstration (an art and craft session), followed by a potluck lunch for the boys and girls. I volunteered to bring a nut-free dessert for the children and since I knew other mothers would bring typical, popular Indian desserts, Aria and I prepared a colorful, playful dessert instead for the children.

For the occasion, I transformed our little Aria into an Indian princess and tried to match the dessert with her colorful, festive attire. The dessert consisted of individual servings of a cookie baked in a mini cupcake liner and filled with cardamom-flavored triplechocolate cream (lemon, strawberry and milk chocolate). Needless to say, the children adored the sweet treats and Aria was so proud to tell her classmates she had helped preparing them.

This whimsical chocolate dessert marks the onset of the holiday season. The sweet treat consists of espresso dark chocolate, orange and salted caramel milk chocolate layers. If you omit the garnish, you'll notice that the dessert is egg-free and gluten-free.

Having an almost 3-year old at home is a constant reminder that I need to get prepared to celebrate Halloween. We've gone through so many costume ideas already, I wonder which one Aria will finally agree on when the times comes! For this dessert, I prepared three different flavors of chocolate mousse. The mousse required very few ingredients: milk, whipping cream, butter, sugar and of course chocolate (the star of this sweet treat!).

In my opinion, macarons are the epitome of a classic, elegant French dessert. If you've been following my culinary adventures, you've probably noticed how very keen I am on serving individual, miniature portions and that's exactly what I adore about macarons. They're made of a sweet meringue (egg whites, sugar and almond flour) sandwiched around a flavored filling of some sort. For this version, I used chocolate ganache (heated heavy cream poured over finely chopped exquisite, high-quality chocolate).

Cooking (and by extension baking) is an expression of love. I think the person who receives your baked goods will appreciate your effort and feel special. And that's my favorite part; I take pleasure in seeing the ones I love happy.